Problems implementing SQL query in Rapidminer to create report

Question

My Questions:

Is there a way to add quotes around %{macro_name} in my SQL query ?

Is there a better way to create the required report (i.e. not using RapidMiner)?

My Process:

I'm currently trying to create a custom report of data stored in a MySQL database. Here is an hypothetical example of my table data:

Item_Name  Item_Price Item_Stock Item_Timestamp
Dish Soap    3.99        25      1/1/2013 12:00am
Frogs        0.69        26      1/1/2013 12:00am
Frogs        0.69        19      1/1/2013 1:00am
Dish Soap    3.99        28      1/1/2013 1:00am

Item_Timestamp refers to the datetime of when the entry was made.

I'm attempting to use RapidMiner to do the following:

Provide a summation of increases in Item_Stock for each unique Item_Name

Provide a summation of decreases in Item_Stock for each unique Item_Name

Provide the average rate of change over a specified time period

My goal is to create a report that tells me whether items are being restocked at a rate of equilibrium with demand.

In order to create a report for each unique Item_Name, I have created a RapidMiner process which loads unique Item_Name as an example set, then attempts to loop through the exampleset by using the extract macro operator which sends the Item_Name from each example to another SQL query. RapidMiner uses %{macro_name} as the syntax for the macro. My SQL query looks like:

Select Item_Name
From thisTable
Where Item_Name = %{macro_name}

The problem is that this query throws an exception, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps the problem is that %{macro_name} returns a string without the necessary quotes, but I am unsure.

My questions are:

Is there a way to add quotes around %{macro_name} in my SQL query ?

Is there a better way to create the required report (i.e. not using RapidMiner)?

Answer 1

I figured out the main problem:

My current SQL string has a syntax problems. I needed to capitalize and there should be no space before %{macro_name}

SELECT Item_Name
FROM `thisTable`
WHERE Item_Name =%{macro_name}